Here’s a brief walk with some material on reconciliation by Walter Wink.
Forgiveness is one of the most frequent of miracles. I use “miracle” advisedly, for forgiveness is among the most unexpected and impossible acts a human being can perform, and yet people do it every day. Take, for example, a woman who has been tortured and repeatedly raped, who says that she has forgiven her torturers. How is such a thing possible? Does she not want to burn them with acid, dismember them with an axe, submit them to the same sadistic rituals to which they subjected her? It runs against human nature to forgive all that she has suffered. She has every right to demand strict justice, to see these persecutors tried and convicted and made to pay for their crimes against her. And yet she brazenly forgives them. I can find no other word for it: a miracle.
Wink’s example is more than I can handle. He could have picked something that would allow me to have an easier time to talk about forgiveness…but he does not. Thus he hits at the radical and miraculous act of forgiveness. It is almost too strange to talk about it. It is like a burning bush that is not consumed by the fire…impossible…and yet it is…it is indeed, real.
Connection: I think it is enough to simply read Wink’s story again and make it a point of reflection throughout the day. It takes much prayer to simply listen to it. It is the very power behind radical conversion.
Lord, by your love for us we are made your own. When we deserve exactly what we may get in this world, you continue to stand for us and with us so that we will never be alone and despised. Teach us to be so bold in our loving of others. Amen.
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